New Profile’s statement on the 2023-2025 Gaza Genocide

New Profile has worked to resist Israel’s war culture and deep-running militarization for over 25 years. This abiding feminist, anti-militarist standpoint, positioned within and as part of Israel’s society, has compelled us to interrogate the character of the current warfare being perpetrated in and against the Gaza Strip, by the country of which we are citizens. While New Profile is neither a human rights organization nor a group specializing in International Humanitarian Law, our scrutiny of these long months of militarized violence has been conducted in light of the still ongoing proceedings at the International Court of Justice and the widespread view, outside of Israel, that the Israeli state is subjecting the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza, to an act of genocide.

15 months have passed since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza, which quickly evolved into a genocide which is similar in many ways to other genocides the world has been witnessing so far, and is still witnessing today. Even now, as a ceasefire deal has been announced, the Israeli military is still attacking and killing Palestinians in Gaza.

We are aware that the usage of the word “genocide” to refer to the war on Gaza is still considered controversial by many. But genocide is not a vague idea; it is a well-defined concept, and throughout this year we have seen it play out in every aspect of the events, as we elaborate below.

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Apart from the attacks on Gaza, since the beginning of the genocide, Israel has conducted attacks against civilians in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The attacks on the West Bank and Lebanon particularly escalated at times, with civilians being targeted, killed and displaced; the ceasefire deal with Lebanon has been violated by Israel. While in this statement we mainly address Gaza, we do want to point out that the tactics used in other places are very similar to those we have seen in Gaza since October, and that if not brought to a halt by the international community, they are likely to end up amounting to a genocide as well. 

The Gaza genocide

The Genocide Convention, which sets the accepted standard for what constitutes a genocide, defined genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

It is important to note that genocide does not require complete annihilation to be considered such; Jews, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Bosniaks and others members of persecuted nations have had many members of the group survive their respective genocides.

Since October 7th, 2023, Israel has committed the crimes described in clauses (a)-(d) of the convention. In establishing our claims, we will first present the aspects which explain why Israel’s actions are deliberately targeting the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, and then elaborate on each clause.

Destruction of a group

As noted above, the term “genocide” refers to the destruction of a group – not only the killing of its members, but the destruction of the various aspects that make the group what it is. Prior to the war, despite having been occupied by Israel since 1967 and until 2005, having been under blockade since 2007 and having survived four wars, the Gaza Strip was home to around 2.3 million people, as well as to 12 universities, around 1200 mosques, 4 churches and hundreds of cultural heritage sites. Gazans owned thriving businesses such as factories, restaurants, cafes and stores, and have been creating art, writing books and achieving scientific developments.

Notably, the Israeli military has been targeting all aspects of Palestinian life and culture in Gaza. Every single university in Gaza has been bombed, hundreds of mosques, churches and cultural heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed, and most businesses are non-existent and will take years to rebuild. Gaza City itself is now largely destroyed, its historical and cultural sites reduced to rubble. Israel has particularly been targeting Gaza’s scientists, doctors and scholars, which could threaten the ability of Gaza’s society to restart and resume its cultural and scientific activities. 

While this statement focuses on Gaza, we would like to reiterate that it is never only Palestinians in Gaza who are affected by the policies and actions of the Israeli state, the Israeli military and the majority of Israeli society. For decades, Palestinian citizens of Israel have been discriminated against by dozens of laws as well as actions, and the discrimination has worsened further since October 7th; many have been disproportionately detained and arrested as a result of expressing their opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza on social media.

In the past year, due to an aggressive drive of mass civilian armament, Palestinian citizens of Israel are also subject to the direct threat of vastly proliferating firearms issued to Jewish citizens – particularly considering the established practice of summary executions of suspected and/or actual (Palestinian) attackers. 

In the West Bank, Palestinians are routinely subjected to restrictions on movement, violence at checkpoints and within cities and villages, as well as detentions of adults and children that lead to years in prison, often without trial. Since October 7th, Israel has killed over 800 Palestinians in the West Bank and has detained thousands; around 25 communities have been dispossessed, forced to flee their homes as a result of military attacks and settler violence. 

Palestinians, albeit a diverse group, are in many ways one ethnically and culturally, having resided within the borders of historic Palestine for centuries and more. Their existence is continuously fractured by Israel, as they are separated by walls, borders and laws, with members of one subgroup not even allowed to meet or visit the others (e.g Palestinians in Gaza might not be able to meet Palestinians from the West Bank during their entire lives). Significantly, the Gaza Strip is home to many descendants of those Palestinians who were living within the current borders of Israel prior to their expulsion by Zionist forces in the Nakba (1947-1949) and never allowed to return; stories of massacres, expulsions and executions from the current genocide often mirror stories from the Nakba.

Genocidal intent

Since October 2023, many Israelis and supporters of Israel have not denied Israel’s actions and their results – mass death, injury and destruction – but instead claimed that those were the unpreventable results of legitimate attacks on military targets in Gaza, rather than intentional targeting of civilians. However, the opposite conclusion is drawn once we inspect the words and actions of various Israeli figures – political, military and others – since October and throughout the war. 

Many Israeli politicians and military figures have clearly expressed their intent regarding Gaza, including but not limited to the following:

In October 2023, President of Israel Isaac Herzog said at a press conference that “it is an entire nation that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true”. Major General Ghassan Alian (head of COGAT, the military body responsible for coordinating civilian policy in Gaza and the West Bank), said in October that “human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”

During the same month, as the number of children killed in Gaza was rising, Knesset Member Meirav Ben-Ari announced in a parliament session that “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves.” In November, Knesset Member & Deputy Speaker Nissim Vaturi called in a tweet to “wipe Gaza off the face of the Earth”. In January 2024, Vaturi said in an interview that he does not regret anything he said, and added that “it’s better to burn, bring down buildings than for our soldiers to be harmed.” 

Those are only a few of many quotes by various decision makers who have clearly stated their intent – to inflict suffering, death and destruction upon all Gazans, as a whole, based on their perception that no one in Gaza – child or adult – is innocent, and therefore every Gazan should be punished. Many additional quotes can be found in an extensive database compiled by Law Palestine.

Genocidal intent is not merely addressed in words; it is expressed in actions. Investigations by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham have shown that the military had bombed buildings while knowing exactly which people or families were there, and had decided to attack anyway. In an interview, Israeli spokesperson Avi Hyman admitted that he did not know the number of non-militant casualties in Gaza, which shows that despite its claim regarding “doing what it can to prevent casualties”, Israel has not, in fact, been prioritizing civilian lives. More recently, a New York Times article described how Israel knowingly attacked civilians, with officers approving strikes that would kill or injure up to 20 non-combatants per strike; the article refers to the bombing of Gaza as “one of the deadliest bombardments of the 21st century”.

Beyond the fact of targeting civilians as such, which in and of itself amounts to war crimes and to crimes against humanity, the genocidal intent is clear when we consider the destruction of the health system in Gaza, the destruction of most of the houses that would take many years to rebuild, the deliberate starvation and the evident attempts to get rid of the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, by either killing or deportation. 

In the initial months of the genocide, the destruction in Gaza was systematically driven from north to south, which, alongside Israel’s revealed plans to transfer the population of Gaza to Egypt, and the predictable result of 80,000 – 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza crossing into Egypt from October until the border closure in May 2024, reveals Israel’s intentions to push Gazans into Egypt. As nearly all Palestinians who have been driven from their homes by Israeli forces in the past decades have not been allowed to return, this is almost guaranteed to result in permanent expulsion.

As we address this, we would also like to mention that while the state of Israel is responsible – and should be held accountable – for all its actions described in this document, and particularly its control of the Rafah border (albeit unofficial before its invasion in May), other states are also complicit in aiding Israel as it commits its crimes. In particular, Egypt is complicit as it allowed an Egyptian company to charge thousands of dollars from people who wanted to cross the border from Gaza. 

Genocidal intent is also expressed in Israel’s systematic targeting of humanitarian aid. The entry of such aid to Gaza – both from Israel and from Egypt – is controlled and restricted by Israeli authorities, and in Israel it has been blocked by right-wing activists, most of whom are settlers living in the West Bank, without the state taking measures to ensure it enters. Movement of aid trucks from the north of Gaza to the south is also severely restricted by Israeli forces. Additionally, Israel has targeted UNRWA – an organization crucial to aid distribution in Gaza – both through a coordinated smear and de-funding campaign, and physically by repeatedly bombing its facilities and staff. Israeli forces also target Palestinians as they gather to collect aid, most famously in the flour massacre in February 2024 which was only one out of multiple instances. And, finally, Israel has been sabotaging the efforts of various organizations to distribute aid in Gaza, a famous example being the killing of the World Central Kitchen crew. 

Would-be justification of genocide

Alongside denial of genocidal intent – claiming that there is no intent of mass murder, and that numerous civilian casualties are just an expected result of military actions (or even the fault of the victims) – another common response to genocide from the perpetrator’s side is would-be justification of genocide. A common excuse for the Gaza genocide, widely accepted among Israelis, is the trauma stemming from the atrocities of October 7, and the alleged need (and alleged ability) to prevent such events from happening again through military means. We at New Profile reject all war crimes, particularly killing civilians and taking hostages. 

As an antimilitaristic organization, which works to gather and spread information on the implications of militarisation and militaristic indoctrination for the civil society in Israel, we acknowledge the fact that these soldiers have been indoctrinated from a young age to hate and fear. This life-long and ongoing indoctrination and social pressure have pushed them to take an active part in a genocide. As much as they are guilty of perpetrating this genocide, an even greater guilt lies on the governments and the people in power throughout time. We believe that the ongoing militarisation of Israeli society ultimately leads to mass deaths, whether it is the killing of, most pressingly, the people in Gaza, as well as in the West Bank, Lebanon and in other places targeted by Israeli attacks – but also the killing of Israelis, civilians and soldiers alike.

We also reject killing civilians and taking hostages when practiced by the Israeli military, as they have been for decades. In 2022, one of the deadliest years for West Bank Palestinians, Israeli military forces and settlers killed over 140 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; in addition, hundreds of Palestinian children are detained and prosecuted by the Israeli military court system every year (over 800 were arrested in 2023 alone) – essentially held hostage, and often abused physically, mentally and sexually. 

We would like to remind those who claim that the actions of Hamas or other militant groups justify Israel’s actions in Gaza, that many genocides or atrocities start due to an alleged reason which the perpetrators believe to be a valid justification for the violence that follows. The Armenian Genocide in 1915-1917 was justified by the Ottomans who claimed military necessity; the Tulsa massacre in 1921, in which white residents of Tulsa murdered hundreds of their Black neighbors and destroyed dozens of city blocks, began with the claims that a Black man assaulted a white woman; and the Kielce pogrom in 1946, in which 42 Polish Jews were murdered, started after a Polish boy claimed to have been kidnapped by Jews. 

There is also nothing new in the idea of “liberating” a people from their own leaders by perpetrating violence against them. Just as many Israelis claim that Israeli military forces are liberating Gaza from Hamas, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 under the claim of saving the Russian-speaking population from Ukrainian nationalists. The same state conducted its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 under the flag of “denazifying Ukraine”, and has been killing, injuring, starving and torturing civilians ever since.

The clauses of the Genocide Convention 

Killing members of the group

A study by The Lancet estimates that between October 2023 and June 2024 only, the death toll in Gaza due to traumatic injury (mainly as a result of military attacks) was above 64,000, nearly 3% of the entire pre-war population of Gaza. This number includes tens of thousands of women and children, with over 1400 families completely wiped off the civil registry; many of these people’s bodies are still lying under the rubble, and many others are missing but have not been accounted as dead.

An earlier study estimated that there could be 4 indirect deaths for every direct death – which would mean that the overall death toll could surpass 320,000. This includes those who have died, or would die, of hunger or diseases which were impossible to treat under the conditions in Gaza. 

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

At least tens of thousands of Gazans have been injured during the war. Children in Gaza constitute close to 50% of the population, and have been affected gravely by the ongoing attacks, with one thousand losing one limb or more during the first month of the war, as well as by the ongoing lack of appropriate food, sanitation and medical treatment. 

Apart from the physical injuries, mental trauma – already prevalent among Palestinians in Gaza due to previous Israeli attacks – is now likely to be affecting most of the people in Gaza as well as those who left during the war; most of them have lost family members, experienced or witnessed attacks and bombings, or have undergone displacement and lived in dire conditions. Gazans living outside of Gaza, as well as many non-Gazan Palestinians, are also experiencing similar trauma due to the loss of loved ones, the exposure to the violent attacks on Gaza (often mirroring their own past experiences) and the constant threat to their loved ones in Gaza. 

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

Before October 7th, Gaza was already under a blockade that was imposed in 2007 and had been affecting all aspects of life, including resources such as electricity and water, as well as freedom of movement. The nearly total blockade on Gaza since the beginning of the war and the deliberate targeting of hospitals, ambulances, medical personnel, humanitarian aid distribution points, sources of electricity, food, water and cash, have created severe conditions: even if a Gazan is not under direct threat from the Israeli military, they are at constant dire risk of starvation, thirst, disease and exacerbation of existing medical conditions. In addition, most of Gaza’s residents, who number around 2 million, have been displaced and are living in tents, which creates additional risks as well as continuous emotional instability.

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

Pregnant women and newborn babies are among the most heavily affected populations in Gaza. Mothers are at risk due to lack of maternity services, malnutrition of both mothers and 

babies, an increase in miscarriages and premature labor (often caused by stress and shock), while babies have been dying of starvation, disease and lack of medicine. Moreover, premature babies have been dying due to lack of essential medical service. 

All those conditions were brought on deliberately – by imposing a siege, forcing displacement that leads to dire living conditions, obstructing aid & deliberately avoiding prevention of its obstruction by civilians, targeting hospitals and medical personnel. On October 9th, 2023, Defence Minister of Israel Yoav Gallant stated: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed”, and added, “we are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”

The situation was further worsened in May 2024, when Israel occupied the Rafah border crossing – the main point of entry for humanitarian aid as well as the main exit point for medical evacuations and the only possible exit point for most Gazans, in the case they wish to leave and are able to pay the high monetary costs. Omer Bartov, a historian and an acclaimed genocide scholar, states in his Guardian article that “at least since the attack by the IDF on Rafah on 6 May 2024, it was no longer possible to deny that Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions”. 

Sexual violence

Another claim commonly used by Israel to justify the genocide is that Gazan men systematically raped Israeli women on October 7th, and therefore all Gazans deserve to be punished for this. We are aware of instances of rape and sexual violence on October 7th, even though claims about the systematic nature of this violence have never been substantiated. A report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory also indicates that there have been findings indicating sexual violence being perpetrated against women and men on October 7th.

As a feminist, anti-militaristic organization, we condemn any and all sexual violence, committed by any gender towards any gender. This includes, but is not limited to, any sexual assault, particularly when the perpetrator holds a position of power, whether in terms of physical strength, an official position or the practical capacity of inflicting physical or psychological violence towards the victim. This includes any sexual violence committed on, before and after October 7th. We would like to stress that victims should be believed and supported in their journey to recovery, which includes keeping them and others safe from the perpetrators.

We believe personal testimonies from victims, or witnesses, of sexual assault. We are also aware that there has been a lot of contradicting information surrounding the events on October 7th. In the aftermath of October 7th, collecting forensic evidence from the bodies of those killed was not prioritized, and, understandably, living victims would not be motivated to step forward and share their testimonies widely. The lack of clear evidence that can be made public is to be expected; however, unbased allegations, paired with forced confessions obtained by means of torture, have been widely shared and used to paint Hamas as a “rapist regime” and Gazan men as a whole as rapists who deserve the punishment – in the form of indiscriminate killings, injuries, torture and other crimes mentioned above – delivered by Israel. 

The racist trope of the “barbarian Arab”, the “dangerous rapist” or the “human animal” has been used not to protect and support the victims or to prevent future violence (prevention which, in our view, would require halting, rather than escalating, military actions), but to justify collective punishment, war crimes, and dehumanization of Palestinians – particularly Palestinian men, who are viewed by the military and the public as “terrorists” rather than human beings. 

It is also important to remember that the idea of responding to sexual violence with mass punishment is the opposite of feminist; this approach stems from the perception that women are the property of a nation’s men – Israeli men, in this case – and that anyone who threatens such “ownership” needs to be punished. Everyone should be safe from any form of sexual violence, regardless of the nation they belong to, but sexual violence can never be an excuse for the collective punishment of the perpetrator’s national or ethnic group.

As we stand against any and all sexual violence, it is crucial to mention how sexual assault has been used as a weapon by Israel against Palestinians for many years. Over the years this has included sexual assault at checkpoints and sexual abuse and threats towards Palestinian prisoners – including children. Most recently, during the attacks on Gaza, Israeli forces have committed multiple sexual and gender-based crimes against Palestinians from Gaza.

Israeli guards raped Palestinian prisoners in the Sde Teiman detention center, and female Palestinian detainees have been raped and threatened with rape and sexual violence. Among many forms of sexual abuse documented in the Independent Comission’s report, men have been subjected to forced public nudity and stripping, as well as photographed while being subjected to sexual acts, and women have been forced to remove their clothes and/or veils in public, and sexually harrassed by soldiers.

One particularly infamous form of violence was documented by Israeli soldiers, who filmed themselves rummaging through underwear in Gazan homes while directing insults at Gazan women, then proudly posted them on their social media pages.

We reject any use of sexual violence as a war weapon, in any context, whether towards children or adults, civilians or militants. As we reject militarism as a whole, we want to stress that sexual assault and trauma can never be a military objective, no matter the circumstances. We strive for a world where anyone, in any country or context, is safe from sexual or gender-based abuse and from any fear of such. 

New Profile & the genocide

We stand firmly against militarism in all its forms – this is, and has always been, New Profile’s focus as we conduct our work. Our counseling network is continuously supporting teenagers who decide not to join the Israeli military, and soldiers who decide to leave their service, as well as reservists who have been serving in Gaza since October 2023. In fact, our work in this aspect has significantly increased since October, as many soldiers, for various reasons – such as personal trauma, fear of injury and death, or the understanding that they would not want to continue taking part in Israel’s military actions – ask for support in the process of leaving the military. While the people we support remain anonymous, there have been public declarations of refusal by reservists as well as conscripts, who all mentioned their opposition to the military’s actions in Gaza.

New Profile is one of very few actors addressing one of the most strained resources of the Israeli war machine—the human resource. We know that our work in this aspect is important and effective in imposing constraints on Israel’s military.

Militarism & the Gaza genocide

A large part of the Israeli public claims to “having had their eyes opened” in October, concurring that the events on October 7th require a military response – ranging from “destroying Hamas” to “flattening Gaza”, while taking part in, and supporting, such actions ever since. However, our position remains the same: nothing can justify violent attacks on a civilian population, such as collective punishment, military offense, mass murder or a genocide. Moreover, systemic violence begets violent responses, and the only way to end all violence – towards Israelis and towards Palestinians – is to halt the systemically violent actions that Israel has been taking against Palestinians for many decades. 

While educating and raising awareness within the Israeli public has been more of a challenge since October, considering the general public mood among Israelis, the wide support for the continuation of the war and the persecution of those who stand against it, our work continues as we create content in Hebrew and English and organize events locally and abroad, aspiring to educate people worldwide on Israeli militarism and how it affects every aspect of our society. 

This genocide did not occur in a vacuum. It is due to decades of colonial practices, of reinforcing Zionist ideologies, of apartheid across historic Palestine (Israel, the West Bank and Gaza), and of deep militarisation of every aspect of Israeli life, that Israeli society has reached a stage when all those events are normalized, accepted and celebrated, when questioning the legitimacy of military action against civilians is considered akin to treason.

Militarism & Israeli media

Since October 2023, we have seen this militarisation increase in many aspects. Israeli media has become complicit by obscuring the events in Gaza, and particularly the constant deaths and injuries of Gazan civilians, while platforming genocidal calls. As an example, following the massacre in Nuseirat camp in June 2024, Israeli journalist Hila Alroi mentioned watching “a video that we cannot show from the Nuseirat refugee camp, that looks like the aftermath of a terror attack”, implying that Israeli media is not allowed to show the grave damage that the Israeli military inflicts on Gazan civilians to the Israeli public. She went on to say that the people in Gaza “should know that whoever hides hostages, this is what their house is going to look like afterwards”, which on the ground translates to annihilation of anyone in the vicinity of a place where hostages are held, regardless of their affiliation or even knowledge of the hostages being held nearby. 

The idea that anyone in Gaza is a legitimate target has been widely perpetuated by Israeli media. For instance, in February 2024, Rami Igra, previously head of the Captive & Missing Division in the Mossad, said on air that “there are no uninvolved civilians in Gaza (…) anyone over the age of four is a Hamas supporter”, to which journalist Ayala Hasson agreed, adding that “every house in Gaza is a Hamas headquarters”. 

This is not surprising, considering that many Israeli journalists received their journalistic training in the military, particularly in the spokesperson unit which is known to spread misinformation since the beginning of the genocide and long before – such as in the cases of the killing of Shireen Abu-Akleh, the shooting of Mohammed Tamimi, and the 2014 war on Gaza. A more recent example can be found in the violent and degrading arrest of Palestinian men in northern Gaza, which the Israeli media celebrated as an “arrest of Hamas terrorists”, only to announce later that only 10-15% of those men had any affiliation with Hamas.

Despite military sources not being reliable, they are considered sacred (as is the military itself) by a major part of the Israeli public – as they have been ever since the establishment of the State of Israel. First-hand Palestinian testimonies describing targeting civilians in aerial attacks, targeting ambulances, shooting people along the “humanitarian corridor”, torturing detainees and more, are quickly dismissed and labeled as lies; Palestinians, despite being the direct victims of Israeli militarism, are not seen as reliable narrators of their own lives by the Israeli public, even though recent testimonies from soldiers describe the same reality (while soldiers who give such testimonies are often dismissed as “liars” or “traitors” and pay a social price). Deep faith in the morality of the army leads to the common saying that “our soldiers would not do this”. The same faith in the morality of the military is the driving force behind another common belief, according to which, “any action taken by a soldier must be moral, since our soldiers are moral”. In Israel, criticizing the military is seen as a grave offense; in the eyes of a militarized society, even if the military might occasionally be in the wrong, unwavering support that would ensure victory is above any commitment to morals, truth or even logic. 

Militarism & Israeli society

In this part of the statement, we would like to address what we see as a crucial point of committing a genocide as a society, and the question of how it becomes possible to recruit so many people to take part in it. 

As we do so, we should also mention that Israeli society is diverse and includes, among others, Ashkenazi Jews and other white and white-passing people, Arab Jews, and Palestinian citizens of Israel. As it is with many other nationalistic societies, institutionalized racism harms marginalized communities within the society itself as well. When we discuss militarisation in this section, we will focus on the Jewish Israeli population. 

This genocide, not unlike others throughout history, was enabled by long-term militarization of society, by glorification of the army and by dehumanising narratives.

Contrary to popular belief, it is far from true to say that all or most Israelis serve in the military. In 2020, less than half of the “military age” youth (18-year-old Israelis) joined the military. And yet, the military is a central part of daily life, and has become even more so since October 2023. Hundreds of thousands of reservists have been called to serve, and many Israelis have partners, children, close relatives or friends who are part of the military, with many of them fighting in Gaza. Many others have become involved in other ways – by fundraising for soldiers (despite Israel’s enormous military budget, and the military support it receives from other states), as well as by spreading and creating online content in support of Israel. The more Israelis become personally close and involved with the military and its actions, the less they are willing to criticize it or to accept any criticism towards it.

Israeli militarism does not limit itself to its direct victims. Since October 2023, militarization within Israeli society itself has been increasing in several ways. Weapons in public spaces have become increasingly common, not only due to soldiers serving in Gaza who carry their weapons around at all times, but also because of limitations on carrying arms being eased – which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of new handgun and rifle licenses among Jewish Israelis. Many Israeli non-militants now carry arms, a situation posing a risk to all – but particularly increasing the risks of gender-based violence as well as violence towards Palestinians both in the West Bank and within the ‘48 territories. 

It was not only decision makers, but also Israeli musicians who have recruited themselves to join the “war efforts” by cheering on the military as it attacks Gaza. For example, in “Harbu Darbu” singers Stilla & Nes call for the deaths of not only Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, but also celebrities who have expressed support for Palestinians, and refer to Palestinians as “sons of Amalek” (according to the Bible, Amalek were a people whom God ordered the Israelites to annihilate). The song has had immense success among the Israeli public. 

As New profile works within Israeli society, we have been watching the normalization of violence for many years. A significant part of the society serves in the military, and either actively takes part in occupation, or interacts daily with those who take part in it and normalize it. This, in turn, further normalizes militarism, and all that it entails in this context – dehumanization of Palestinians, restricting and attacking civilians, and viewing military solutions as the only viable ones – as part of daily life. 

In addition, the trauma, the violence and the militaristic values gained and reinforced by those serving in the military and particularly in Gaza, have been seeping deeper and deeper into Israeli society itself. Militaristic behavior does not limit itself to specific situations; for instance, the same soldiers who have been filming videos of themselves destroying Palestinian property, rummaging in the underwear of Palestinian women and generally mocking Palestinians who are living through constant bombing and starvation, are very likely to similarly mock, humiliate, harass and harm their fellow Israelis, including their partners in future relationships. 

Militarism, October 7th & its consequences

We would like to point out two additional fundamental components of deeply embedded militarism – the lack of transparency regarding military actions and the devaluation of human lives. 

On October 7th, over 200 people (soldiers and civilians, including both Israeli and international citizens) were taken hostage into Gaza by Palestinian militants and civilians, and 1189 people were killed in the areas surrounding the Gaza Strip. However, it was also the Israeli military and decision-makers who made choices and took actions that killed Israeli soldiers and civilians on multiple occasions – such as the shelling of the house in Be’eri by Israeli tanks, the employment of the Hanibaal directive by shooting at vehicles even at the risk of killing hostages, the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza which has killed multiple hostages, and the shooting of the three Israeli hostages as they emerged from hiding unarmed and shirtless, carrying white flags. Such results, including their aftermath in which military figures take no responsibility for the lives they have claimed, are inevitable in a reality where the military is sacred, destruction is a goal and saving human lives is secondary at best, and insignificant at worst. 

Both the events themselves and the potential solutions have been approached from a highly militarized perspective. Discussion of the hostages (as well as those killed on October 7th) dismisses the prior militarization, due to which some of those hostages were soldiers serving on the border with Gaza, taking part in inflicting an ongoing siege as well as perpetuating continuous occupation, and risking their own lives and freedom – a position into which they had been forced at a very young age by the state of Israel. The approach to seeking solutions to the hostage situation has also been highly militaristic; while offers for a hostage exchange, which could bring all Israeli hostages back and prevent additional bloodshed, have been on the table since early October, Israel has chosen to proceed with military action, as described above. A year later, as of January 2025, most of the hostages who came back, were brought back in an exchange deal; in June 2024, a “rescue mission” – essentially a massacre of over 200 Palestinians – was conducted in Nuseirat camp, and promoted as an act of heroic rescue, thus disregarding completely the many lives lost, the risk to the rescued hostages themselves, the killing of other hostages by the military during the “mission”, and the fact that all hostages could have been brought back home a year ago without spilling a single additional drop of blood. 

Rejection of war crimes & complicity

Israel is not a unique case, but yet another manifestation of colonialism, militarism and international impunity. Systemic violence and military presence among civilians tends to evoke armed resistance, as it has for oppressed people worldwide. In contrary to what Israeli propaganda wants us to believe, Jewish safety cannot be guaranteed via the oppression of millions of people, nor will eroding every aspect of Gazan life grant safety to people in Israel – Jews, Palestinians, migrant workers, refugees and others, who are in fact all likely to become less and less safe as militarisation expands and deepens. As an organization of Israeli citizens, New Profile confronts war crimes committed by Israel with particular outrage and shame. 

Israel, however, could not have committed such crimes without material support from other countries. Another New Profile project, DIMSE (Database of Israeli Military and Security Exports), provides information on Israel’s arms industry and on its trade with over 130 countries worldwide. This trade allows Israel to continue developing weapons and use them on Palestinians in Gaza and otherwise, while also supporting a variety of war crimes around the world – from arming the Serbian military that massacred Bosnian Muslims, to selling drones to Azerbaijan as it ethnically cleanses Armenians. The database provides information that is vital to the efforts of activists worldwide to halt such trade, in order to make it increasingly difficult for Israel to continue its actions. 

In addition to direct military trade, many companies are complicit in the genocide in other ways – for instance, by providing fuel or shipping weapons. In addition to the database, New Profile and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) have researched and compiled a detailed list of companies profiting from the Gaza genocide. We reject all such support and complicity, of organizations and governments that allow the genocide to continue. 

An end to the genocide, and a beginning to full Palestinian freedom

We at New Profile stand against militarism because we firmly believe that every human being has the right to be safe and free, and we know that nationalistic militarism leads to the contrary. We oppose all damage done to Palestinian lives, freedoms, health, safety and culture, as well as deliberate destruction of the future of Palestinians. We support the right of Palestinians in Gaza, and Palestinians as a whole, to be safe from military aggressions and from any related harm. 

We acknowledge that an end of the genocide on Gaza will not be enough. For a real change in this region there should be an immediate agreement that will ensure the return of all hostages – the Palestinian hostages in Israeli prisons and detention centers as well as the Israeli hostages in Gaza, and an immediate end to the Israeli assaults on Lebanon. A permanent solution will have to include decolonization: an end to the siege on Gaza, an end to the occupation of the West Bank, granting the Right of Return to Palestinian refugees, including the internally displaced, dismantling each one of the dozens of laws of the state of Israel that discriminates against Palestinians or causes their oppression, and ultimately ensuring full and equal rights for all Palestinians and for everyone living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea.

We will never see war and violence as inevitable. War and armed violence are always a policy choice, whether in Palestine/Israel or anywhere else in the world. As a feminist, anti-militaristic movement, we will continue to stand for nonviolent solutions that do not inflict additional harm and destruction, but rather strive for ongoing safety, peace and justice for all living beings. We call upon anyone whose values are similar to ours, to do the same.

New Profile, January 2025